I was interested to find the word, “deficit scolds” in Paul Krugman’s article titled “Hawks and Hypocrites” in New York Times (November 11).
It appears in the following sentence:

Back in 2010, self-styled deficit hawks — better described as
deficit scolds — took over much of our political discourse. At a time of mass unemployment and record-low borrowing costs, a time when
economic theory said we needed more, not less, deficit spending, the
scolds convinced most of our political class that deficits rather than
jobs should be our top economic priority. It’s not just the fact that
the deficit scolds have been wrong about everything so far.--
The deficit-scold movement was never really about the deficit.
Instead, it was about using deficit fears to shred the social safety
net.”

Oxford online English Dictionary defines “scold” as “noun, archaic or U.S. meaning a woman who nags or grumble constantly.

Cambridge online dictionary doesn’t show the usage of “scold” as a noun.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines “scold” as a noun meaning 1. One who scolds habitually and persistently. 2. A woman who disturb the public peace by noisy and quarrelsome behavior.

From Merriam-Webster I interpret “deficit-scolds” are those who are critical of the government’s financial policy and growing deficit.

+1, great question. I would like to say, Yoichi-san, that I always enjoy your questions. They are thoroughly researched and well-reasoned, and they draw on impeccable sources. I appreciate the eagerness with which you assay the challenges of our English language.
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Mark BeadlesNov 13 '12 at 2:23

2 Answers
2

This was the original meaning of the noun scold, and — rather quite oddly — seems to be related to skald, an kind of mistrel-poet of the Norse. The OED has this curious note about its etymology:

Etymology: App. a. ONor. skáld neut. (see skald), originally meaning a poet; the sense-development postulated is strange, but the probability of a sense ‘lampooner’ as an intermediate stage seems to be indicated by the fact that the derivative skáldskapr, lit. ‘skaldship’, poetry, has in the Icel. law-books the specific sense of libel in verse.

Dating from Middle English, scold used as a noun was nearly obsolete before suddenly exploding upon the zeitgeist again. The OED has as its first definition:

In early use, a person (esp. a woman) of ribald speech; later, a woman (rarely a man) addicted to abusive language.

It includes these citations:

1817 Coleridge Biog. Lit. xxiii. (1907) II. 206 ― The Prior was one of the many instances of a youthful sinner metamorphosed into an old scold.

1842 Mrs. Gore Fascination 15 ― ‘If you only manage to drink the wine I send to fetch for you,’ said the scold of a wife, ‘you won’t be much the worse for it.’

1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 67 ― Too often he is under the dominion of a forbidding scold, who, in addition to her other bad qualities, is slovenly and unthrifty.

They also define a common scold as “a woman who disturbs the peace of the neighbourhood by her constant scolding.” It is an old term. When Shakespeare used in in The Taming of the Shrew, saying

I know she is an irkesome brawling scold.

It had already been around for four hundred years. It didn’t see much currency, though, until very recently. Using scold as a noun like this has seen a “recent” explosive increase in popularity. It’s suddenly a popular word in America. I first noticed this about a year ago or so, although probably I was late to that table. I do think it is but newly popular here.

The answer to your question is that yes, you may use it in the ways you asked about.

I think it's important to recognize the traditionally female connotation of the term scold, which evidently owes much of its force to developments in British common law. In a lengthy article titled "Legal Condition of Woman" in The North American Review (April 1828), the unnamed reviewer has this to say about "scolds":

Our ungallant fathers of the common law provided a peculiar punishment for common scolds, but carefully confined the crime and the punishment to scolds of the female sex. Scolds are defined in the books to be 'troublesome and angry women, who, by their brawling and wrangling amongst their neighbors, break the public peace, increase discord, and become a public nuisance to the neighborhood.' Our ancestors thought, perhaps, that men being indictable as common barrators or movers of suits and quarrels, and there being no precedent of such an indictment having fallen upon a woman, although Hawkins thinks there is no good cause why it should not lie, therefore it was not amiss for the latter to be exclusively liable to punishment for scolding. The barrator is only subject to fine or imprisonment; but the scold was indictable as a common nuisance, and if convicted was sentenced to be placed on a certain engine of correction called a castigatory, trebucket, or cuckingstool, and after being exposed thereon to be plunged in the water. [abbreviated legal citations omitted]

Thus, one aspect of calling someone a "scold," regardless of the companion word in the compound ("deficit scold," "grammar scold," etc.), is to suggest that the person is behaving in a way characteristic of a stereotypically fault-finding woman. No doubt many people today do not intend that connation—I'm sure that Paul Krugman would deny that he intends any such thing—but it's there for the taking.